Man, James chapter 2 tonight is a pretty famous passage and we of course believe that salvation
is 100% by faith alone in Jesus Christ.
We're not saved by works whatsoever.
Salvation is by grace through faith, not of works lest any man should boast.
And a lot of times when you're preaching the gospel of Christ unto unsaved people, they
will come at you with, well what about James 2?
Or doesn't James 2 somehow teach that works are involved in salvation?
And because this comes up so often, it's good for us to understand this chapter and not
only to be able to understand this chapter deeply, but also just to be able to give a
quick answer to those who would just kind of pull this out as sort of a gotcha.
You know, you've got 100 verses clearly stating that salvation is by faith and you've got
verse after verse after verse.
And it's just kind of like, well what about James 2?
Hmm.
And it's kind of this little gotcha moment or as if it would just negate everything that
the Bible has already said in all these other verses.
Here's the thing.
When you have just a mountain of verses saying one thing and then one scripture that seems
to be saying something else, which one do you think you're misunderstanding?
Probably the one that is the anomaly, not the one that is repeated over and over and
over again.
So right from the jump, let me just be clear, salvation is 100% by believing on the Lord
Jesus Christ and there are no works involved with getting to heaven whatsoever, okay?
But people are going to bring this up and so let's look at it and see what it's actually
teaching.
Now, let's jump in first of all.
I just want to give you the easiest way to respond to this because you're not always
going to have an hour to sit down with somebody and say, hey, let me just break down to you
everything about James 2 step by step.
A lot of times, you're talking to a person who isn't even really that versed in the Bible
anyway.
They don't really have an in-depth knowledge of James 2 in the first place.
They're just kind of repeating something they heard.
Well, James 2, you know, faith that works is dead so we have to have works as well.
They'll just kind of throw that out there and so you want to have just an easy way to
respond to this without necessarily getting off on too much of a rabbit trail because
if I'm giving someone the gospel, I'd rather get back to the salient points of the gospel
than to just get off on a big, long tangent on James 2.
So I'm going to start out by just giving you a quick response, a quick way to deal with
people who are confused about this passage.
If you would, start reading in verse number 20 and I'll come back and deal with the verses
before that first but I want to give you the easy version first.
It says in verse 20, but wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead,
was not Abraham our father justified by works.
Now look, the rest of the New Testament is teaching over and over again justification
by faith.
So this is surprising, isn't it, to see that Abraham was justified by works.
But here's the key.
It says, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar.
Seest thou how faith wrought with his works and by works was faith made perfect and the
scripture was fulfilled which saith Abraham believed God and it was imputed unto him for
righteousness and he was called the friend of God, ye see then how that by works a man
is justified and not by faith only.
Now keep your finger there and let's go to Romans chapter 4 because this is the easiest
way to show someone their misunderstanding of James chapter 2 and to show them that in
fact the Bible is consistent in its teaching that salvation is by faith and not of works.
If we go to Romans chapter 4, we find the same subject matter about Abraham and about
his justification and this will clear up what we just saw in James chapter 2.
Look what the Bible says in verse 1 of Romans 4.
What shall we say then that Abraham our father is pertaining to the flesh hath found?
Watch this.
For if Abraham were justified by works, because what did James 2 say?
Oh yeah, wasn't Abraham justified by works when he offered Isaac his son upon the altar?
It says here, if Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory.
What does that mean he hath whereof to glory?
It means he has something to be proud of.
He has something to boast about.
What an achievement.
Good job Abraham being justified by works.
He has whereof to glory but not before God.
Why?
Because no flesh will ever glory in God's presence.
No one can boast or glory in the presence of God and in fact what did the famous verse
say for by grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves it is the gift
of God not of works lest any man should boast.
Right?
And so if Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory but not before God.
For what sayeth the scripture Abraham believed God and it was counted unto him for righteousness.
Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace but of debt, watch this,
but to him that worketh not, this is someone who is not doing works, but believeth on him
that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.
So the quick answer to this is that James chapter 2 is talking about being justified
in the sight of other people, being justified by man whereas Romans chapter 4 and the whole
rest of the New Testament when it talks about salvation by faith over and over again is
talking about being justified in the sight of God.
You see God sees the heart, he knows the heart and if you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
you're saved by that faith, he sees that it's not your works at all and in fact it's
possible not to do any works and still to believe in Christ and still to be saved.
Because the Bible says right in front of you, Romans 4-5, him that worketh not but believeth,
he's saved, his faith is counted for righteousness.
And so when we stop and think, and I'm going to go more in depth on this now, but that's
the quick answer is that James 2 is talking about being justified in the eyes of man and
Romans 4 is talking about being justified in the sight of God.
Now notice when did it say that Abraham was justified by works?
When he offered Isaac his son upon the altar.
Well if you think about it, Abraham was over a hundred years old when he offered Isaac
his son upon the altar and in fact he was probably around a hundred and thirty years
old, right?
It's hard to pinpoint his exact age at that event but he would know that he was well over
a hundred years old because he was a hundred years old when Isaac was born and Isaac seems
to be a grown young man.
In that story he's probably even thirty, thirty-three years old mirroring Christ but whether he's
a teenager, whatever, he's well over a hundred years old.
Do you expect me to believe that Abraham didn't get saved until Genesis chapter 22 when he
offered Isaac his son as a hundred and some year old man?
No because the Bible already tells us in Genesis 12, right?
Probably fifty, sixty years earlier that Abraham called upon the name of the Lord and we see
the statement in Genesis 15 many, many years earlier where he says Abraham believed God
and it was counted unto him for righteousness, right?
So Abraham was already saved decades before he was justified by works by offering Isaac
his son upon the altar.
But you see, offering Isaac his son upon the altar was what justified him in the eyes of
man.
Why do we think of Abraham as the giant of the faith?
Why is he known as the father of faith or Abraham had such great faith?
Is it because of something that happened in his heart in Genesis 12 or his private calling
upon the name of the Lord?
No, it's because we look at that story in Genesis 22 and say that is an incredible amount
of faith.
That's how he showed his faith to the world.
We read Genesis 22 and see an enormous amount of faith that he would be willing to do something
so seemingly outrageous as to offer Isaac his son upon the altar because he just believed
God and wow, that's pretty amazing.
Now here in Romans chapter 4 verse 5 we have a crystal clear statement and this is not
the only place this is taught in the Bible.
We're going to look at other places but it says here that him that worketh not but believe
it.
That proves that it's possible to not work but yet to believe.
Otherwise this verse would be meaningless, right?
Him that worketh not but he believes on him that justifieth the ungodly.
His faith is counted for righteousness even as David also describes the blessedness of
the man unto whom God impudeth righteousness without works but yet you'll have people say
well according to James 2 faith without works is dead so they'll say well salvation is by
faith alone but faith is never alone.
Have you heard that one before, right?
But apparently faith is sometimes alone because number one, Romans 4, 5 says him that worketh
not but believe it.
Number two, James 2 says faith without works is dead.
Now let me ask you this.
How can faith without works be dead if faith without works doesn't exist?
Because they're claiming faith is never alone so they're saying faith without works doesn't
exist.
Is that what James 2 says?
No, James 2 says faith without works is dead and they'll say well you know it's not real
faith, it's not saving faith or whatever they'll say.
Well here's what's funny about that.
What about a car that doesn't work?
A car that doesn't work is dead, right?
If I look at my neighbor's house and there's a car in front of their house that doesn't
work, car without works is dead.
That car don't work, it's dead.
Well that's not a real car.
See how that's a foolish argument to say well if it were a real car it would work, you know,
because cars drive and so if it don't drive it must not be a real car.
No, no, no, car that no work be dead, okay?
Faith without works is dead.
Faith without works exists.
It's a dead faith.
Car that no work exists.
Dead car, okay?
But it's still a car.
It's a real car.
It's a true car.
It's a driving car.
It's just not driving right now.
But it could drive.
It has driven.
It would drive.
Maybe someday it will drive.
Maybe it'll never drive.
Maybe it'll just keep being there but it doesn't prevent it from being a car, okay?
Well guess what?
Faith without works is dead.
If I believe on the Lord Jesus Christ as my savior, as a child, right?
And then many years later I get backslidden and I'm not going to church, I'm not reading
my Bible, I'm not doing any works, then at that time in my life if you looked at me you'd
say, this guy's faith is dead.
What about a church that's once thriving and doing great works for God?
A church that believes on Jesus Christ as their savior but then they stop doing the
works.
What are they?
A dead church.
It doesn't mean that they're not a church.
It doesn't mean that they're not saved.
It doesn't mean they don't believe in Jesus.
It just means they're not doing the work.
And look, I've gone to a lot of churches and said, this is a dead church and it wasn't
because they didn't believe in Jesus.
It was just because they're just not doing the work.
Why?
Because faith without works is dead.
Just like the body without the spirit is dead.
Just like the car that can't start is dead.
So faith without works is dead also.
You see, in context, James is talking to people that are already saved, okay?
And that's why he starts out almost every chapter in the book of James with my brethren,
you know, and he's saying, uh, look, have works with your faith.
He wants them to work.
Of course God wants us to work.
But when it comes to salvation, it's by faith.
It's not of works, thus any man should boast.
And look, was Abraham justified by works in the sight of, in the sight of man?
Absolutely.
But what about before God?
Romans four says, if Abraham were justified by works, he asked where of the glory, but
not before God because Abraham believed God and it was counted unto righteousness.
David also describes the blessedness of the man to whom God imputed the righteousness
without works.
And here's what I love here because a lot of people will say this, they'll say, well,
you don't have to do works to be saved, but you do have to stop sinning or be willing
to stop sinning.
Isn't that what they'll sometimes say like, well, it's not that you have to do good works,
but it's just that you have to not do certain things.
Well, let's see what the Bible says.
Verse seven, blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered.
Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin.
So the Bible says here in verse six that God's describing the blessedness of the man unto
whom God imputeth righteousness without works.
And that guy is described as having sins and iniquities that just aren't being counted
against him.
So according to verses seven and eight, has this guy stopped sinning?
No, it's just that he's blessed because God's not going to impute sin unto him even though
he's not doing the works, even though he has sins to be covered, even though he has iniquities
to be covered.
Otherwise these verses would be unintelligible.
How could he be blessed by having his sins and iniquities covered if he's not doing any?
Okay.
And by the way, the Bible says whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth and scourgeth every
son whom he receiveth.
Is God just beating his children when they do everything right?
No, he's whipping his children when they do wrong.
And he's scourging every son whom he receiveth because every son whom he receiveth is going
to need a scourging from time to time because we all are sinners.
None of us is perfect.
Okay.
Now here's the next interesting part in Romans five here.
Scummeth this blessedness then upon the circumcision only or upon the uncircumcision also?
Verse nine of chapter four.
For we say that faith was reckoned to Abraham for righteousness, how was it then reckoned?
When he was in circumcision or in uncircumcision?
Here's another way of saying this.
When did Abraham get saved?
Did Abraham get saved when he was circumcised or when he was uncircumcised?
We say faith was reckoned to Abraham for righteousness.
When did that happen?
Uncircumcised or uncircumcised?
Well the Bible says that it happened when he was uncircumcised.
Okay how old was Abraham when he got circumcised?
What was he 87 years old or something like that?
Somewhere in that neighborhood?
Okay how old was he when he offered Isaac his son upon the altar?
Well over a hundred.
So again when was his faith reckoned for righteousness?
It's before he was justified by works when he offered Isaac his son upon the altar.
So his salvation was already settled decades earlier while he was uncircumcised according
to Romans four.
So again as I said before what this comes down to is that Romans four is talking about
being justified in the sight of God.
James two is talking about being justified in the sight of man.
Let's go back to James two with that in mind now and this is the right way to interpret
the Bible comparing scripture with scripture not just ignoring Romans four and pretending
like it doesn't exist and then just interpreting James two in a vacuum.
Look if you just interpret James two in a vacuum yeah I could see how you would walk
away believing in works salvation but there's this thing called the Gospel of John that
hammers salvation by faith like 90 times.
There's a whole book called Romans that hammers salvation by faith and not by works.
There's this book called Galatians that hammers justification by faith.
So James two is not in a vacuum.
James two is a part of the New Testament and we need to compare spiritual things with spiritual.
We need to compare scripture with scripture.
James two and Romans four go together perfectly.
They're both talking about Abraham.
They're both quoting Genesis 15.
They're both referencing at the timeline of Abraham's life and when things took place
and so you don't want to interpret the one without the other.
So let's go back and look at that again.
It says in verse 20 wilt thou know O vain man that faith without works is dead.
Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he had offered when he had offered Isaac
his son upon the altar?
Seest thou how faith wrought with his works and by works was faith made perfect?
Now what does the word perfect mean?
It means complete, mature, ripe, right?
Even I'm just talking about the English word perfect because when we say perfect today
in 2023 we usually mean something that's flawless or without error, but this word when
the King James Bible was translated meant something slightly different.
It meant that as well in some context, but it also means just being complete ripe.
The Bible talks about bringing fruit to perfection, meaning bringing it to ripeness, right?
The Bible talks about being perfect and entire, wanting nothing, lacking nothing.
You're complete in him.
And so we could go through and look at all the mentions of the word perfect in the New
Testament.
You'll see that it means something like complete, ripe, uh, you know, uh, mature.
Those are the type of definitions.
And so the Bible is saying that faith wrought with Abraham's work and by works, his faith
was made perfect.
It was made ripe, it was made complete, it was made mature.
Basically when we act out our faith, then that is increasing our faith, improving our
faith.
Look, when we get saved, we're not necessarily a giant of the faith.
We just have enough faith to just call out to Christ as our savior.
But what did the disciples say?
Lord increase our faith, right?
The Bible says we go from faith to faith.
And so as we go through our Christian life, we're growing in faith.
The fruit of the spirit is faith.
So we're going to be more spiritual and having more faith as we've been saved longer if we're
walking in the spirit.
And so Abraham's faith is obviously tested at a new level in Genesis 22 when he offers
Isaac a son upon the altar.
Okay.
But his personal salvation was already settled with the Lord many decades earlier.
He was already justified in the sight of God much earlier.
He's justified in the sight of man when he does this.
And it says the scripture was fulfilled which saith Abraham believed God and it was imputed
unto him for righteousness and he was called the friend of God.
You see then how that by works a man is justified and not by faith only.
How is that?
In the sight of man versus in the sight of God according to Romans chapter 4.
Now look at the next example that's given here.
Verse 25.
Likewise also was not Rahab the harlot justified by works when she had received the messengers
and had sent them out another way.
For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.
This is the thing that is so funny because people that are not saved, they're so blinded
to what the scripture says that sometimes they don't see just obvious things that are
just right there on the surface that just whoop, just go right over that because they're
just spiritually blind because they don't understand that salvation is by faith.
They don't have the Holy Spirit guiding them through this and so they're so blinded that
they will actually use a prostitute as an example of being saved by works like doing
good things.
I mean imagine how absurd this is to interpret this past because when people are using James
2 to say that salvation is by works, what are they saying?
They're saying you have to live right.
Right?
You live right.
You live up to a certain standard.
You know, yeah, you believe but you're also keeping the commandments and doing these things.
Okay, how does a prostitute fit in with that?
Can you explain that to me?
Because the Bible says that Rahab the harlot was justified by works when she had received
the messengers and had sent them out another way.
She was a prostitute while she did those things.
I mean look, they went to the house of Rahab the harlot.
Interesting choice of accommodations but, you know, they go to the house of Rahab the
harlot probably just because they think, you know, nobody's gonna look for us here or something.
I don't know why they went there but they went there and they're staying at her house
and she's not Rahab the ex-harlot.
She's Rahab the right now harlot.
That's why dudes are able to just show up and just stay the night there.
Now obviously these dudes are not, you know, committing fornication with this prostitute.
They're secret mission spies and they're just using that as a cover, okay?
But the point is though that her door was open for these guys to just come in and say,
she's called Rahab the harlot because she's a harlot.
When is she justified?
Well, that's when she stopped being a harlot, right?
Nowhere does the Bible say that.
There's nothing in the text where they say, hey, you know, we wanna talk to you about
your choice of profession.
There's no reference to her harlotry except just the fact that she is one.
They lodged in the home of Rahab the harlot.
That's it.
There's no reference to, you know, oh, you know, she's willing to stop and she's willing
to change and she's willing to get right with God or whatever.
No, no, no.
She's justified while being a harlot when she had received the messengers that had sent
them out another way, right?
But again, what is James 2 talking about anyway?
He's talking about being justified in the sight of man because here's the thing.
She tells the two spies that come to her and you can read about the story back in the book
of Joshua, right?
When the spies come to her, she tells them.
She says that she knows that the Lord has done all these great works in Egypt and, you
know, all of our hearts are melting and she's asking for mercy.
She's asking to be saved physically from the destruction and then they tell her, well,
here's what you're going to do.
You're going to put a scarlet thread out the window to mark your house.
She lived right on the wall, um, of Jericho and she's to put the red line, the scarlet
line out of her window and they said, when we attack the city, anybody who's inside this
house that has that scarlet line is going to be spared.
So bring your family or whoever you want to not be killed and we're not going to kill
anybody who's in this house with the scarlet line.
Obviously the scarlet line is symbolic of the blood of Jesus Christ, just as those in
the Passover when they're in the house that has the blood on the doorpost, right?
That house, everyone inside is safe, okay?
If we're in a Christ, we're saved by the blood of Christ and so that picture of the scarlet
line is representing salvation by faith in Jesus, okay?
And that's the picture there.
And here's the thing, he didn't say, don't bring any over of your prostitute buddies,
you know, don't bring any derelicts in here.
Don't bring any sinful people in here.
It's just no, no, no.
Whoever's in the house is spared and the scarlet thread is a symbol of their salvation and
she actually believed in the Lord as far as her spiritual, personal salvation.
She believed in the Lord, right?
But what convinces the spies that she believes in the Lord?
Can they look in her heart with x-ray vision and say, well, this prostitute is actually
believing in the Lord.
How did they know that?
Because she received the messengers and sent them away in peace.
She's showing them, I believe you guys.
Does everybody get that?
When Abraham offers Isaac his son upon the altar, he's showing, I really believe God,
I'm willing to do what the Bible says even in this outrageous circumstance, right?
When she receives the messengers and sends them out another way, now she's done works
that show the spies that she believes and she puts out the scarlet thread.
What does the scarlet thread do?
Does it show herself or God that she believes?
No, she's showing them, hey, I'm with you guys.
Don't kill us.
And that's a picture of salvation.
The blood of Christ saves us.
There's no mention of her repenting of being a harlot in order to be saved.
We have all kinds of harlots and publicans believing in Jesus.
Isn't it interesting there's not a single verse that says that they stopped being a
harlot and then that's why they were forgiven by Christ.
Now obviously every prostitute should stop being a prostitute immediately.
And I believe that there is evidence if we look at the rest of the Bible that eventually
Rahab does end up getting married as she's a part of the nation of Israel, having children
and that she's even an ancestor of our Lord Jesus Christ physically speaking.
If you look at Matthew chapter 1, assuming it's the same Rahab, which I believe that
it is, then there's that.
But that's not really the point, is it?
The point is we need to go by what the Bible actually says, not by what it doesn't say,
okay?
The Bible doesn't mention these things about her quitting her sins as part of her justification
and so we shouldn't add that to the text.
And so it becomes an absurdity to say, oh yeah, James 2 shows that we have to, you know,
do works to be saved.
Just look at Rahab the harlot.
Rahab the what now?
Are you listening to yourself?
You see, the main primary application of James 2, like I said, is that we're talking justification
before man versus justification before God, two different things, right?
But here, you know, when we read the Bible, we need to understand that there are multiple
layers of interpretation.
The Bible's really deep and it can be understood on other levels and so there are multiple
legitimate interpretations of James chapter 2 that are also correct.
That's not the only correct interpretation.
But here, let me tell you a wrong interpretation, one that contradicts the rest of the Bible.
One that says, yeah, you got to do works in order to get to heaven.
That's garbage.
The Bible's crystal clear on that score.
We saw it in Romans.
We could literally turn to over 100 scriptures or, you know, many of us could just recite
many scriptures that would just completely debunk that.
But another level we could understand this on is that sometimes the Bible will use illustrations
like this of people showing their faith just as a picture of the fact that when we believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ as our savior, there's also a pulling of the trigger when it comes
to salvation.
There's calling upon the name of the Lord, right?
So when I got saved, I called out to the Lord as my savior and then that was the moment
that I got saved, right?
The gospel was preached to me.
I believed.
I called upon the name of the Lord and I was saved, right?
Now obviously calling upon the name of the Lord isn't going to work if you don't believe
in your heart, right?
You've got to confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that
God raised him from the dead and thou shalt be saved.
How shall they call on him and if they've not believed, right?
And so another secondary interpretation of this, and I would call this a secondary interpretation,
not the primary interpretation because what I just gave you I believe is the primary interpretation.
A secondary interpretation of this is you could look at, for example, verse 19, okay?
We're going to back up because we're going to deal with this whole passage.
Let's back up to verse 19 and just think about this on a secondary level.
Thou believe is that there's one God.
Thou doest well.
The devils also believe and tremble, but wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without
works is dead.
Now a lot of people will quote the verse faith without works is dead and they'll quote it
out of context just to use it as sort of a slogan, let's say, for example, in the gym
or something.
I've gone to the gym and seen a sign up in the gym that said, faith without works is
dead and they're not talking about salvation and they're not talking about going to heaven.
They're just saying, you know, believing in something's great, but you want to act on
that belief as well.
Now again, that's not in context.
That's not the primary application here, but you could say, okay, yeah, that is a truth
that you want to put things into action.
If you want to see results, you know, believing that a certain workout is going to get you
in shape isn't going to prevent you from actually having to go do the work and actually do that
workout.
Does everybody see what I'm saying?
That's like a secondary use here.
So you could say that like, Hey, believing in Jesus Christ is one thing in the sense
that, uh, you just believe that he exists.
Is that really what it means to be saved?
No, because when we say believing in Jesus saves you, what are we talking about?
Trusting Jesus.
Right?
So when we say believing in Jesus, we're not saying believing he exists.
Is everyone who believes that Jesus exists saved?
No, because even an atheist might believe that Jesus existed.
What about someone who is trusting 100% of their works to get them to heaven?
I mean, we knock on somebody's door and they say, I'm going to heaven because I'm a good
person.
I live a good life.
I mean, we've heard that hundreds of times, thousands of times that person's not saved.
But what if that person believes Jesus exists?
I'm sure that they do believe that Jesus exists, but does that make them safe?
No, because believing in the existence of Jesus isn't what saves you.
When we say, but I believe in aliens, which I don't, but if we're to say, I believe in
aliens, what do we mean by that?
We're not saying I trust aliens.
I'm relying on aliens.
When we say I believe in aliens, we're saying, I believe aliens exist.
Everybody understand that?
That is a different use of believe.
That's not the believe that we're using when we talk about believing in Jesus.
Okay.
If I said, Hey, do you believe in the tooth fairy?
I'm not saying, are you fully trusting the tooth fairy to get to heaven?
I'm saying, do you believe in the existence of the tooth fairy, the existence of aliens?
That's a different kind of believing, but what if you're going to go play in a big soccer
game tomorrow and I say, Hey man, I believe in you.
I'm not saying I believe you exist.
I'm saying I believe that you're able to do what you set out to do tomorrow.
That's what it means.
Say I believe in you.
Okay.
Now keep your finger here in James two.
Let's go over to Ephesians chapter one because I want to show you this in the Bible.
Look at Ephesians chapter one and let's look at verse 13 and we could go lots of places
in the Bible to see this, but when we say believe, we're not talking about believing
in the existence of Jesus.
We're talking about trusting Jesus to save you.
Okay.
So the Bible says in Ephesians chapter one verse 13 in whom also ye trusted after that
you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation.
So what did they do?
They heard the word of truth, the gospel of their salvation, and what was their response
to that?
They trusted in Christ in whom also after that you believed ye were sealed with that
Holy Spirit of promise.
So if we let the Bible define itself, the Bible calls trusting in Jesus, believing in
Jesus, right?
You trusted in Jesus and then after that you had believed in him, which is synonymous with
what he just said, you trusted him and then after you trusted him, after you believed
in him, you received that Holy Spirit of promise.
And so believing in Jesus, the biblical definition of believing in Jesus is trusting in Jesus,
right?
Why am I going to heaven?
Because of Jesus, not by works of righteousness, which we have done, but according to his mercy,
he saved us.
Okay.
We're saved by grace through faith, not of works, lest any man should boast.
I can't boast because I'm not saved because of me, I'm saved because of Jesus.
What am I relying on to get me to heaven?
Not myself, not my works, not my deeds.
I'm relying on Jesus.
I'm trusting Jesus.
It's not that I just believe that Jesus exists.
It's that I trust Jesus as my savior.
Okay.
Now look at James chapter two, it says in verse 19, thou believe is that there's one
God, thou doest well, the devils also believe and tremble.
Now first of all, when the Bible says thou believe is that there is one God, that is
talking about existence.
You know, people will ask you, Hey, do you believe in God?
Usually they're talking about existence, aren't they?
Do you believe in God?
They're saying, do you believe God exists?
This flat out says that we're talking about existence because it says thou believe is
that there is one God, so you're, you believe that God exists and you believe that there's
only one of him.
You know, you're not believing in Zeus and Apollo and Hermes and all these other false
gods, right?
You believe that there's one God, you're monotheistic, great, good job, but is that enough to save
you?
Is that enough to get you to heaven?
Absolutely not.
Because first of all, this isn't even saying Jesus because a lot of people believe in one
God and it's not Jesus.
I mean the Muslims believe in one God, but are they believe in Jesus?
The Jews believe in one God, do they believe in Jesus?
No.
So they're not even close to being saved because a lot of people you'll say, well, the Bible
says that if you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, you'll be saved.
And here's what they say, well, the devils believe, but see how they switch definitions
on believe now because when it says the devils believe, is it saying the devils have trusted
in Christ?
No, it's saying they believe in the existence of God.
And when the Bible says for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that
whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have eternal life.
It's not about existence.
It's a different definition of the word believe.
It's not believe as in Jesus exists, it's believe as in I'm believing in him to give
me eternal life.
I'm believing in him as my savior.
I'm believing that his death, burial, and resurrection is why I'm going to heaven.
I'm fully trusting that what he said he would do, that he said that he would wash away my
sins in his own blood.
I believe that.
I'm trusting that.
That's totally different.
So if somebody just says, well, you know, the devil believes, you see how they're moving
the goalpost because when I'm telling you you have to put your faith and trust in the
Lord Jesus Christ, I'm not telling you believe Jesus exists.
I'm telling you believe that Jesus died, buried, and rose again and that that is your ticket
to heaven by believing on Jesus, putting your faith on Jesus, right?
It's like I've used the illustration of a chair.
I can believe in the chair in the sense that the chair exists but when I sit on the chair,
now I'm believing on the chair, right?
I'm actually putting my weight on it and if that chair doesn't come through, I'm going
to fall on my butt and so the chair is the object of my trust, right?
Who's ever sat in a chair and it just gave way under you and you just went cry?
Probably everyone at some point.
You probably just don't remember because you block out those types of embarrassing things.
I know I do.
I can't think of any particular instance but I guarantee it probably happened to me 10
times in my life, right?
You sit down in a chair and it's unstable.
You fall down, you slip, you trip, you know, you put your faith in the wrong thing.
That's the kind of faith we're talking about with Jesus.
You're trusting Jesus as your savior.
We're relying on him and it's exactly what the James 2 work salvation crowd, the people
who are misusing James 2, it's exactly what they're not doing, not putting all their trust
in Jesus.
They're basically, they're sitting in the chair.
Here, let me just grab a chair to use this illustration.
Basically what they're doing is they're saying like, you know, yeah, I believe in Jesus,
you know, but I'm a good person.
And sometimes their butts literally not even touching the chair because there's so much
distrusting in themselves or maybe it's like, well, you know, yeah, I mean, Jesus is part
of it, but you know, you got to live a good life, you know?
And it's like, they're not willing to put their weight down.
Why not?
Because this isn't comfortable.
This is awkward.
The only reason to do this is because I'm not sure the chair is going to do what it's
supposed to do.
That's the only reason I'm doing this right now, right?
Because otherwise it'd make a lot more sense to just put everything on the chair.
The only reason not to put everything on the chair is if you think there's something wrong
with the chair or that the chair is not enough and that the chair can't, you know, well,
I'm just too heavy for that chair.
And so, well, here's the thing.
No matter how many sins you've done, your sins aren't too heavy for Jesus, right?
He died on the cross for all of our sins and we're sin abounded.
Grace did much more abound and it doesn't matter how many sins you have.
I mean, you could be spiritually 700 pounds and plop down on that chair of Jesus.
It's not even going to so much as creak.
That's salvation through faith.
You're not even going to hear a squeak out of that thing.
The thing will hold you up.
And so you've got to put your trust in Jesus.
That's what we mean by believe in Jesus.
So saying, well, you know, the devil's also believe.
That's talking about existence.
The devil's believe in the existence of God.
That's not enough, okay?
Because they're not, you know, they're not trusting in Jesus or something.
And again, then there's the whole matter of whether, you know, has salvation even been
offered unto these devils anyway in the first place, right?
I think, you know, James is just bringing this up just to say, look, I mean, the devil's
believe in God.
You're patting yourself on the back because obviously when he says thou doest well, it's
sarcastic.
Like, oh wow, good job.
You believe that there's one God.
I'm so stinking impressed.
I mean, what do you think it means by thou doest well?
Good job.
Think about it.
Oh, you believe that there's only one God.
Oh wow.
So cool.
So do you know, instead of saying the devil's also believe, I could say, well, you know,
1.6 billion Muslims believe that too.
It doesn't prevent them from being a part of a screwed up false religion and going straight
to hell when they die.
It's like, wow.
Oh wow.
You believe there's one God.
You know, so did a lot of Greek philosophers.
So what?
That's not the point.
That's what James is saying.
He's making fun of the idea of basically patting yourself on the back just for believing in
the very existence of God.
Okay, now, what is it that's enough for us to be saved?
It's that we actually have to sit in the chair, not just believe that the chair exists, right?
So we have to believe that Jesus died and was buried and rose again.
And then when we call upon the Lord, the whole idea of calling upon the Lord is that we're
asking him to save us because we're basically saying he's the way to heaven.
We're trusting him.
We're not trusting ourselves and we're asking him to do the saving.
Okay.
And so that's when the trigger is pulled.
When we go out door to door and we go through the gospel with someone, we show them all
the facts of the gospel.
We show them all the scriptures.
We try to convince them the truth of the gospel, but at the end of the day, they have
to make a decision to believe the message that we're preaching.
And then they have to basically pull that trigger and say, okay, yes, I believe that
I'm going to take Jesus as my savior.
And then they would call upon the name of the Lord.
And we try to lead people in prayer and help them do that right then and there because
we don't want them to put it off and maybe just, you know, they forget about it.
Don't think about, you know, we want to bring them to, uh,
a decision right there if we can.
Now a lot of people aren't ready, you know, and we go through the whole plan of salvation
and maybe they're receptive to the gospel, but they're not ready to pull the trigger.
They're not ready to put their faith and trust in Christ.
They're not ready to sign on the dotted line as it were.
And so somebody else might have to come and water that seed later, but we want to at least
try to get them to make that decision right then and there.
Right?
Obviously we can't, we don't want to be pushy or force anything, but we want to at least
try to get them to make that decision.
But at the end of the day, it's their decision.
You know, we can't do it for them.
We can't make it, you know, all we can do, we're just the messenger, right?
We can preach the gospel.
They have to make that decision.
But believing in God's not enough.
They have to actually put their faith and trust in Christ.
They have to call upon the name of the Lord.
And so there's that.
So let's back up and look at the first part of James two.
We kind of dealt with the latter part first.
And again, the reason I'm going in this order is because I wanted to start with the, the,
the simplest way to explain this to people.
Because most of the time it doesn't take a huge theological conversation to, to deal
with this.
You're giving somebody the gospel and they, well, what about James two?
It's you know, it takes less than two minutes to just quickly explain, look, this is talking
about being justified in the sight of man over here, Romans four, boom, not before God
and boom, it's covered.
So let's back up a little bit and look at this starting at the beginning of the, of
the relevant part.
But before we do, let's look at my favorite verse in James two, which is verse 10, which
the James two work salvation crowd never likes to talk about.
They love verses 14 through 26, but for some reason they don't tend to talk a lot about
this verse, uh, verse 10 for whosoever shall keep the whole law and yet offended one point,
he's guilty of all.
So good luck getting all the sin out of your life, repenting of all your sins, keeping
God's commandments, living a good life.
Good luck with that because if you keep the entire law and if in one point you're guilty
of all for he that said, do not commit adultery said also do not kill.
Now if thou commit no adultery yet, if thou kill, thou would become a transgressor of
the law.
It doesn't matter which one you break.
If you commit one sin, you're a law breaker.
You're guilty.
You're doomed.
So good luck getting saved by the law or by works of any kind.
Look at the Bible says in verse 14 it says, what are the profit?
My brother, and this is the beginning of the section.
What is the profit?
My brethren, though a man say he hath faith and have not works, can faith save him?
Now again, a lot of people, because they're blinded on this, they don't see what's right
in front of their face in this verse because they say, see, you know, well, can faith save
you?
If you, if you only have faith and you don't have works, can faith save you?
You know, here's what they don't see is that it says that the guy says he has faith.
Now look, it couldn't, and sometimes when we're studying the Bible, it can be helpful
to think about what God could, how God could have said it differently if he meant something
different.
Like, couldn't the Bible have said if a man have faith and have not works, can faith save
him?
Why doesn't it say that?
Everybody listening?
What if verse 14 said, my brethren, what are the profit?
Though a man has faith and have not works, can faith save him?
Couldn't God have inspired James to write along those lines?
But is that what he wrote?
No.
So the question is not whether faith can save the man who has faith without works because
you know what?
The answer to that is yes.
Faith can save the man who doesn't have works because that's what Romans 4-5 explicitly
stated.
You know what this verse is actually about?
Either faith can save the man who says that he has faith but has no works.
Can faith save him?
And it's a question.
It's food for thought and then he goes on to develop his thoughts in the next few verses.
But the point is that the Bible is not talking about a guy who necessarily has faith.
It's just a guy who says he has faith.
So does the Bible or does Faith Forward Baptist Church or any other Bible believing church
teach that people who say they have faith are saved?
And that as long as you say you have faith, you're going to heaven?
Is that what we teach?
Is that what anybody teaches?
Or do we teach that people who actually have faith are saved?
People who actually believe in Christ.
Now is it possible to actually believe in Christ and not have works?
Absolutely.
Because Romans 4 said, to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth
the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.
And so if a man say he hath faith, don't underline the say, okay?
The man say he hath faith and have not works, can faith save him?
Not only that, but the Bible says, what does it profit my brethren?
What does it profit my brethren?
Though a man say he hath faith and have not works, can faith save him?
Now James is going to talk about basically two different things.
He's going to basically talk about the fact that some people are saying they have faith
and don't necessarily actually have faith.
And that when we look at their works, that can sometimes lead us to judge or assess.
Right or wrong, that's what people are going to do.
Not saying that we can look at people's works and determine whether they have faith because
we can't.
Because we can look at someone and see a lot of good works and assume they have faith.
Turns out they actually don't have faith.
You think there are people who just go through the motions without actually believing in
Jesus?
Of course.
Judas Iscariot.
And we could look at someone with no works and think that they're not saved, but it turns
out in their heart they actually do believe in Jesus.
But what the Bible is saying here is that that is how people think though.
People are going to look at your life, they are going to look at your works, and they
are going to judge whether they believe you are truly a Christian or not.
Right or wrong, that's what they're going to do.
And so, and obviously, just because someone says that they believe doesn't mean that they
actually believe.
We don't know the heart.
We can't see what's inside.
People will often make outward judgments based on works, but that's not always going to be
100% accurate anyway.
The other thing that James is going to talk about in these next few verses is that we
want our faith to benefit other people.
If I have a faith in my heart that no one knows about, what does that profit?
Not talking about profiting me.
If I have faith, I'm saved, I'm going to heaven.
That's good.
But that's not what prophets talk about.
We'll talk about that in a moment.
How am I helping others by my faith if nobody ever sees anything come out of it?
I could believe on Jesus, never do any works, hide it under a bushel, and go to heaven,
but did I profit those around me?
How did Abraham profit those around him?
By demonstrating his faith, by showing his faith, by doing works, he's able to reach
other people.
Now let's look at what the Bible says here.
Those two things are what we're going to be looking at in the next few verses.
Two ideas here.
One is that people could say they have faith and don't actually have it, and people could
even question it when they don't see any works, whether that's right or wrong.
Then number two is that our faith is dead and doesn't help anyone else if we don't have
any works to go with it.
It's the works that benefit our fellow man.
Let's look at what the Bible says.
Verse 14, what does it profit my brethren though a man say he hath faith and have not
works, can faith save him?
If a brother or sister be naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you say unto them,
depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled, notwithstanding ye give them not those things
which are needful to the body, what doth it profit?
Even so, faith if it hath not works is dead being alone.
So Fidel, come on up here.
Let's say Fidel comes up to me and he says, hey, man, I'm literally starving.
I haven't eaten in days, and he's not one of these drug addicts by the side of the road.
He's legitimately in need.
And I'm just kind of like, depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled, and I don't give him
what he needs.
If I gave him this five bucks, he could go to the grocery store, he could get a loaf
of bread, he could get peanut butter, he could get jelly, and he could eat for a few
days.
But he would never do that because he's this guy.
He'd go to In-N-Out and blow the whole thing on a few beef patties, and it wouldn't last
for days.
But that's, you know, let's not make it about him personally, all right?
Let's just say, you know, I could just give him this five bucks, I could just solve his
problem right here, okay?
Now if I gave him this five bucks, who's being profited here?
Does everybody know what the word profit means?
Okay, who just profited?
You know, his bank account went up by five dollars, mine went down by five dollars.
Who profited?
He's the one who's profited.
Now, let's, come on, the illustration's not over, okay?
You know, this is like that meme, like, only spend this on peanut butter and jelly, and
it's like, no, Fidel, you know, he's over In-N-Out, but anyway, the point is that if
I don't give him this money, right, if I give him the money, Fidel profits.
If I don't give him the money, what does it profit?
What does it profit whom?
What does it profit Fidel if I say, all right, buddy, depart in peace, be warmed and filled.
Go ahead and have a seat, Fidel, okay?
Be filled, buddy.
How's your stomach feeling?
All right?
What does it profit?
Who, what was the difference in profit between these two scenarios?
Giving to him profited him.
Not giving to him, what does it profit?
For him.
We're talking about profiting someone else.
Does everybody understand?
So if I don't put my faith into action, I'm not profiting others.
It's not about profiting myself.
It's about profiting others, right?
Giving to the poor, giving them food, giving them clothing is for their benefit, for their
profit.
They're the one that's sitting there out in the cold and hungry going, what does it profit?
You didn't profit me.
You didn't help me.
You didn't do anything for me.
So what the Bible's teaching here is that when we have faith without works, it doesn't
profit other people.
It's not saying that we're not going to heaven.
It's saying that our faith doesn't profit others.
Does everybody see how important that is?
The object of the profiting is others.
Because me, I don't, no matter which way that scenario goes, I don't profit.
If I don't give him the money, I didn't profit because I have the exact amount of money that
I had before.
If I do give him the money, I have less money.
That's not profit either.
The point is, and you can say, well, you're profiting because you did a good thing and
you feel good about it and God's going to bless you.
But that's not what the passage is talking about.
The passage is talking about people going away cold and hungry and there's no profit
for them.
That's what the passage is actually saying.
Because look at it.
It's right in front of you.
It says, if a brother or sister be naked and destitute of daily food and one of you say
unto them, depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled, notwithstanding ye give them not those
things which are needful to the body, what does it profit?
How does that benefit them?
How does that help them when they didn't get what they need?
Now compare that to verse 14.
What does it profit my brethren if a man say he have faith and have not works?
Can faith save him?
If a brother or sister be naked and destitute of daily food, one of you say unto them, depart
in peace, be ye warmed and filled, notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful
to the body, what does it profit?
Even so faith if it hath not works is dead being alone.
Then he says, yea, a man may say, this is what someone could come along and say, thou
has faith and I have works.
Show me thy faith without thy works and I will show thee my faith by my works.
So people could challenge you and say, well, you're claiming to have all this faith, but
why don't you put your actions where your mouth is?
Why don't you put your money where your mouth is?
Why don't you have some actions to back up what you say you believe, right?
You know, if you say that you believe in that diet, why aren't you on that diet?
If you say you believe in that workout, I don't see you doing that workout.
If you say you, you know, if somebody said they believed in some medicine or something
or some vaccine or something, you'd expect them to be taking it if they're saying how
great it is, right?
How would you like somebody promoting some product that they don't even use?
You know, that's why, you know, I'm not only the president of Hair Club for Men, but I'm
also a client.
You know, what's he trying, what was that commercial trying to say for those few of
you that are in my generation, you know, and saw that commercial?
Who knows what I'm talking about?
Hands all over the building.
Finally, we've got some common ground here to talk about, you know, hey, what's he saying?
Look, I believe in the product because I'm doing, I'm not just faith, I'm works.
I'm putting this junk on my head or whatever it was, Rogaine or I don't know what it was,
Hair Club for Men.
I don't think they ever really told you what it was.
You had to call a number to take the next step, you know, who knows, who knows what
they wanted you to smear on your head or swallow or who knows?
The point is, though, that people, a man may say, it doesn't say God's going to say this,
it's not saying that we should say this, it's just saying a man may say, thou hast faith,
I have works, show me thy faith without thy works, I'll show thee my faith by my works.
You know, that's an argument that could be legitimately made not to say that we can always
tell who has faith based on the works because we know that there are some people who have
faith and don't have the works and we know that there are people who have works that
don't have the faith, but that's what human beings are going to do because that's all
we can really look at, right?
You know, I am making judgments about people, you're making judgments about people, it's
just human nature.
We see a person and we might just guess, I think this is a saved Christian.
I'm looking at this guy's life, he seems like a born again Christian.
Maybe we're totally wrong, but isn't that how we think?
We might look at someone else and be like, oh man, you know, you think that guy's saved?
No, I don't.
But then if we went and talked to that guy, he might solidly have his faith in Christ
and just outwardly he's not doing the works, but that is in general how people judge.
And so if we're saved, do we want to go through life saved but everybody thinks we're unsaved?
Do we want to go through life people saying, well, I don't think you actually have faith
in Christ because I'm looking at your life and you don't have any works, therefore, I
don't think you even believe in Jesus.
You know, well, yes I do.
It's like, well, that's a shame though that people are looking at you that way, right?
And look, I'm not up here tonight preaching, hey everybody, don't do works, it's okay to
have a dead faith, it's okay not to do works.
I'm up here to tell you that salvation is by faith alone.
Obviously the whole point of this chapter is that James wants the people to do works.
He wants us to show our faith.
He wants us not to just be justified in the sight of God, but he wants us to be justified
in the sight of man.
He wants people to be able to look at us and see our faith in action and he wants our faith
to be able to profit other people so that I'm not just giving lip service to the things
of God, but that I'm actually putting it into practice and then how are other people benefited?
They see my good works and they glorify my Father which is in heaven.
That's what should be happening.
Amen?
That's the whole point, that we would actually do work, do the outward things, be a good
testimony, help other people, bless other people, help the poor, help the needy, help
our brothers and sisters in Christ, preach the gospel to every creature.
Look, there's all kinds of work that we should be doing for the profit of others, right?
It's not enough that I'm saved and going to heaven.
It's not like, well, I'm going to heaven and to hell with everybody else.
Who cares?
No, I'm going to heaven and I want to do works so that I can profit the guy who isn't saved,
so that I can get more people saved, so that I can be a blessing to other people.
And so if you actually look at this and break it down, this is not teaching do works, go
to heaven.
Stop being a prostitute, go to heaven.
It's not what it's teaching.
Stop drinking, you know, go to heaven.
There's nothing like that in this passage, okay?
Now obviously this passage, if you just read it in a vacuum at first blush, I could see
how people would walk away and say, yeah, this, you know, this is saying the justifications
by works.
But again, once you get it in the greater context of scripture, once you go back and
actually read the Abraham story that it's referring to, once you go back and read the
Rahab story, then you see, okay, there's something else going on here.
Now I remember being a teenager and thinking to myself, you know, God, I remember just
thinking like, why did God put this chapter in the Bible?
Because to be, to be frank with you, it just, it just kind of bothered me that God would
put something like this in the Bible that, that could be so easily misunderstood.
Even though, yeah, now that we're looking at it and breaking it down and comparing scripture
with scripture, it all comes clear and you see like, okay, I see what he's saying.
He's talking about people saying they have faith and we don't really know if it's legit
because we don't see it in their life.
He's talking about people having faith and not doing any works and so therefore nobody
else profits.
Okay.
He's talking about Abraham being justified or declared to be the ultimate man of faith
in the sight of others when he did this amazing act of faith.
You know, I, okay, I get it.
I see all that.
But man, I remember just thinking to myself as a teenager, just like, why though would
God who wants people to be saved, right?
I mean, God wants people to be saved.
He's not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
Why would he put a chapter in the Bible that could be so easily misread and misunderstood?
You know, has anybody ever wondered that or thought about like, man, why is it, why is,
why isn't this just easier?
But here's another question that could go right along with that is, you know, why does
the devil exist?
Why does the devil exist?
I mean, stop and think about it.
Why does the devil exist?
Because you know what?
God could just eliminate the devil whenever he wants to because in the future, what's
God going to do?
Put the devil into hell and lock him up for a thousand years.
Why not just lock him up early?
Why does God just allow and then, and then here's the really big question after the devil's
already locked up in hell.
Why does God then release him after a thousand years?
Why are you letting this guy out on parole?
You know, he's not reformed.
You know, he's going to, you know that he, you know, he's going back into the joint eventually.
Why are you just letting him out so he can go hurt people?
You know, stop and think about that, but I'll tell you why.
It's because of the fact that God created the garden of evil and what does he put the
garden of Eden and what's he put in the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
Why?
He left that tree out and just said, eat all the trees of the garden, but then he puts
this tree that's off limits in the garden of Eden, the tree of the knowledge of good
and evil.
He puts this tree that's off limits, right?
He, you know, he allows the devil to be on this earth deceiving people.
He allows the Mormon church to have branches all over Arizona and Utah and just, and just,
he just allows them to exist.
He allows Islam to exist.
He allows Buddhism to exist.
All this garbage, you know, God could have destroyed Mormonism in its early days.
He could have just sent some natural disaster through Salt Lake City or something and just
pretty much wipe it out.
And you know, Islam was like this close to being wiped out during the Mongolian empire
and you're just, you know, you're reading these histories of the Mongolian empire and
you're just like, you know, you just want Islam to just get destroyed and it's just
like, ah, where's the fatality, you know?
But you know what?
You have to understand is that salvation is something that, that people have to choose
to put their faith and trust in Christ.
What is it that prevents most people from putting their faith and trust in Christ is
pride.
And it's this idea of, you know, self-righteousness.
I'm going to go to heaven because I'm a good person.
I've done these good things.
And here's the thing.
James 2 exists for a few reasons.
Number one, James 2 exists because it edifies Christians who understand salvation.
We need to understand the importance of putting our faith into practice.
So like I, I read James chapter 2 and it speaks to me that, hey, I need to put my money where
my mouth is.
I need to work out my faith.
I need to put my faith into practice and be blessing to other people, profit other
people.
I need to show my faith and, and you know, so it blesses Christians in that way.
But here's the other function that it fulfills is it actually provides prideful, wicked people
with an excuse to basically not put their faith and trust in Christ because they can
hide behind James 2 and then say, well, no, I'm not believing in salvation by faith because
of James 2.
They're wrong.
They're misunderstanding it.
But God has given them that scripture for us.
It's a rock.
See, the word of God can function in two ways.
The word of God is a rock.
It either functions as being the foundation for us to rest upon and trust in or it functions
as the tool of our destruction, right?
The Bible says, you know, the stone, that rock, we can build on that.
We can trust that.
We can lean on that.
We can rely on that.
Or that rock can become our destruction and grind us to powder.
Jesus Christ, the gospel is the cornerstone of our faith.
But what is it to the Jews?
It's a rock of offense.
It's a stumbling block to them.
Now is a stumbling block a blessing?
You know, you know, you're, you're hiking down the trail or your trail running and you
trip on a rock.
Very common occurrence.
You know what that's called?
It's a stumbling block, a rock of offense, a stone of stumbling.
That's what the Bible is.
He said, what in the world?
The Bible, it depends on your relationship with the Bible.
The Bible is either a stumbling block to trip you up or it's the rock upon which you build
everything.
Either you build on it as your foundation or it lands on top of you and grinds you to
powder.
I mean, God is either your best friend or he's your worst enemy.
I mean, either God is giving you eternal life and glorifying you eternally, or he's sending
you to hell to burn forever.
I mean, that's pretty different.
So you know, God's either really doing great things for you or he's really doing some harmful
things to you depending on what, whether you're trusting him.
So to the prideful and the arrogant, James 2 becomes a stumbling block to give them that
excuse or that thing to hide behind to say, hey, I'm not going to trust in Christ because
of James 2.
I'm trusting in Christ because I'm, here's the thing, I want to believe in salvation
by faith because I'm not a prideful jerk.
You know what I mean?
I just realized that I'm a sinner and that I'm not good enough to go to heaven.
And so therefore I'm just like, yes, salvation by faith.
Where do I sign?
What must I do to be saved?
Let's do it.
I mean, look, who here loves the idea of salvation by faith, free gift?
I was just like, I love it.
I love it.
Now it's true.
It's right.
But you know what?
I like it.
Okay.
Now here's the thing though.
Because they're wicked.
Just saying.
Now I'm not saying to just, oh, you're wicked.
You know, obviously we want to in meekness instruct those who oppose themselves.
You know, if God, prayer adventure would give them repentance to the acknowledging of the
truth because they're in the snare of the devil.
They're not our enemies.
We want to try to help them and get them to see the error of their ways.
But truth be told, if a person goes through their whole life and never receives Christ
as savior and just is just, you know, the James two is their mantra and that's their
excuse for not putting their faith and trust in Christ.
Ultimately it's the wickedness and pride of their heart that's damning them.
And James two is just basically God giving them another path that they could take and
just saying, you know, here, let me just make it easy for you to just go to hell.
If you, if, if you're going to be prideful and want to trust in yourself, well, you know
what?
Here, don't let the door hit you on your way out, buddy.
Here's another path for you to take.
You know, it's, it, and look, let's face it, folks.
This isn't the only hard thing in the Bible to understand is James to the only passage
that's a little bit obscure, a little bit oblique.
No it isn't because there are lots of things in the Bible that are difficult to understand.
And there are lots of things in the Bible that wicked people will misuse.
And you wonder like, man, why did God even put that verse when he knows that millions
of people are going to misuse it?
Millions of Mormons are misusing this verse in first Corinthians 15 and getting baptized
for dead people.
Right?
It's like, why did God even put that verse in the Bible that they're going to twist and
use or whatever?
Because God's just like, Hey, you guys, you know, go for it.
You want to be Mormon?
Go be Mormon.
He that is unjust, let him be unjust still.
He that is filthy, let him be filthy still.
He that is righteous, let him be righteous still.
He that is holy, let him be holy still.
Hey, you want to be Mormon?
Go be Mormon.
Go be Muslim.
Go be Buddhist.
Go be a Hindu.
Oh, you don't want to believe in salvation by faith.
Okay.
Well here, let me give an excuse not to, because you know what?
You're not going to go to heaven anyway, because you can't be an arrogant, prideful, self-righteous
person and go to heaven because no flesh is ever going to glory in his presence.
Nobody's going to go to heaven and think it's because they got themselves there.
Here you go, buddy.
James 2, misunderstand it, trip on it, stumble on it, go to hell.
See you later, because you know what?
Those who actually are humble enough to believe in salvation by grace through faith, they're
going to get saved in spite of misunderstandings of James 2.
You know, when I was a little, you think I was a little kid, I fully understand James
2.
Like, you know, you think when I was 10 years old, I mean, look, it's not like I wasn't
exposed to this passage or hadn't read the Bible.
I read the New Testament when I was like 9, 10, 11.
I didn't read the whole Bible in those days, but I read the whole New Testament around
that age, 9, 10, 11.
And I remember reading James 2 and just saying, you know what?
I don't understand this because it doesn't seem to jive with other stuff I'm reading.
You know, I couldn't have gotten up and preached this sermon right now when I was 9.
May surprise you.
I couldn't have got up when I was 11 and just been like, okay buddy, turn to Romans 4, okay.
You know, I got to James 2 and I was just like, you know what?
I don't know what this means, but I know salvation is by faith.
And I'm just like, all right, let's go.
First Peter, let's go.
And I'm just, I was just like, ready to move on.
James chapter 3, let's go.
James 4, let's go.
I'm not just like, oh man, you know what, you know, and just hung up in it because you
know what?
I'm saved.
You're never going to convince me of work salvation because I'm saved.
You couldn't have convinced 9-year-old me of work salvation even though 9-year-old me
didn't know the Bible very well because 9-year-old me was saved.
You can't unsave the saved.
So I was not, you know, I'm just like, so James 2 doesn't end up harming anybody who's
actually saved.
James 2 can't hurt you.
You know, James 2 can only be a blessing to you if you're saved.
You know, and then I remember reading this later and just God speaking to me through
this passage many times about, about how I needed to go do works, not to go to heaven,
but just that I just should be working.
That's the function in the life of the saved person.
It's helpful to the unsaved person.
It's some, and we get frustrated, like, oh, it makes soul winning harder.
You know, that, you know, that everybody's just pulled, you know, without even understanding
what they're even talking about, you don't even know the passage.
But at the same time, if James 2 didn't exist, those people would find some other way to
take credit for their own salvation and go to hell.
Or they would just join Islam or something because they want to be, they want to go to
heaven because their own righteousness, they're going to find a way to do it.
God's just making it easy for them.
Okay.
I hope that that helps and you know, you may question what I'm saying to you right now,
but if you do, you know, just stop and think about the fact that God does allow the devil
to roam this earth.
God does allow all these things to exist in the Bible that are confusing and whatever,
because God is providing two choices.
Just like in the Garden of Eden, he provided choices.
So if the Bible was just super clear on every point, then, you know, that, that's just,
that was not the way God chose to give us the Bible.
He chose to give us things that are sometimes obscure and in his infinite wisdom, that's
the way he did it.
Let's provide another word of prayer.
Father, we thank you so much for your word and we thank you for the opportunity to look
at James two tonight and to compare it with other scriptures, Lord and Lord God, please
help us to go out and preach the gospel to every creature and get as many people saved
as we can.
And Lord God, those who are, uh, somehow relying on James two as a, as a pretext for a workspace
salvation Lord, I hope that you would, uh, uh, give us the opportunity to show them the
error of their ways before it's eternally too late for those people, Lord.
And I pray that they would humble themselves and be humble enough to receive a free gift
of salvation.
And uh, in Jesus' name we pray, Amen.